A few months ago, I shared our wedding trailer with you all, which was a compilation of a bunch of our wedding footage pared down to a 5 minute teaser. Soon after we saw our trailer, our videographer gave us the raw footage to hang on to.

In celebration of our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, we sat down together last night and sifted through our full video.

Hiring a videographer wasn’t originally part of our budget and we weren’t that attached to having footage of our big day, but after last night I am SO glad we went for it!

Here are five reasons to hire a videographer for your wedding:

They will catch things your photographer missed. There were a few DIY wedding details that I put a lot of effort into that our photographer forgot to take photos of. I was thrilled to see that our wedding video filled in all of those gaps! With HD video, I’ll be able to take screen shots of those little details and include them in our wedding album as photos.

You will have footage of special people. My grandma passed away three weeks ago, and I’ve been really appreciating the fact that she was so involved in our wedding. Watching footage of us hugging and dancing together made me so emotional, but it also made me feel really close to her. I’m so grateful to know that I will always have this footage of my family to look back on, even when they’re no longer living.

You’ll get to see parts of your wedding that you weren’t there for. A couple weeks ago, I found myself wondering what our cocktail hour was like— what music was played? How did the appetizers look? Last night, I found out! It was really neat to see how every piece of our day came together.

You get to re-live your ceremony. Our wedding ceremony was probably the best moment of my entire life. We were both laughing and crying through the whole thing, and I’d never felt more loved by Travis than I did in that moment. Getting to watch that back was so romantic, and I love the idea that we can listen to the vows that we made each other any time in the future.

Your kids will get to see. Travis and I decided to go ahead with a videographer after watching my parents’ wedding video. Photos are one thing, but getting to see your parents in their mid-20’s, talking, dancing and laughing… it’s priceless. I want our kids to have that same opportunity, and I look forward to sitting down with them one day and taking them through each moment.

Another BIG thanks to Dan Kendall for capturing every little moment of our big day!

Will you/did you hire a videographer for your wedding? Do your parents have a wedding video?